epicbeergirl

These are my friends I brought back from CO.    The Left Hand beer is so good!  

Also was pleasantly surprised today to find more craft beer additions at Costco in Fullerton!

San Diego Beer Week is fast approaching and I am hoping to go to quite a few more events this year than I did last year. I'll most likely be kicking it off with Russian River Night in Encinitas the Friday is starts and then the Brewer's Guild Fest the next day. I'll probably hit up a couple more events during the week too.

I've only done Stone's Rare Beer Breakfast for SDBW, was worth it in my opinion.  Great beers and yummy food!

Are there any beer aficionados that do not like IPA?

Everyone has their own taste profile, so not everyone who likes beer likes one style or all of them.

So, there are lots of beer fans who may not be fans of IPAs.

I was talking to Jay and Rich about the weekend and they were saying that AC Golden stole the show with their sour beers. It is going to be interesting to see what happens with the sour market now that Coors has jumped in the ring. Coors can kill the market since they have a building of temperature controlled spaces where these craft beer breweries have limited space of course. Then to top it off they went and bought Cantillon barrels to age the beer. 

 

Waiting for a box of beers to arrive from CO that they shipped back to me. Can't wait for some Funkwerks, one of these years I am going to get out there for the festival. 

I didn't try any of their beers while there, I usually go for breweries I've never heard of when I'm there.

Funkwerks reminded me of Bootlegger's old tasting room, really cool vibe!  I def want to go out there when it's not GABF, so many places/events to visit in such little time.  I think it's worth going that week even if you don't go to the actual fest itself.

Jealous

You should go next year!

I went to Denver this past weekend for GABF.  Friday went to a bunch of breweries including:

New Belgium, Odell, Oskar Blues, Lefthand, Funkwerks, and Crooked Stave.  So much good beer in Colorado!  Got to grab a beer off of the bottling line at New Belgium, which was awesome.

Congrats to beachwood for crushing today at the GABF with 5 medals including best mid sized brew pub. 

It was really cool to go the awards ceremony, Figueroa Mountain and Pizza Port both did really well too with multiple wins!

So, I tweeted today how I was sad about drinking my last bottle of the Wanderer...and got a reply from the Bruery saying not to be sad w/ link to photo of Patrick Rue and Craig Wathen.

: )

Headed to Phoenix on Sunday for a few days. Hoping to have some Bells Two Hearted Ale and will be looking for Oracle but that's probably long gone now.

Lucky you, they have Ska available in AZ!  You should try to go to World of Beer, great selection of beers on tap!

Sounds like a good time. 

 

Anyone else trying to win the lottery to get Citra bottles? Hopefully I will get lucky enough to get the opportunity to buy 6 bottles. A bit of a drive but well worth it. 

 

Went to the Smog City Rare Beer event last Saturday, jam packed but they did a good job getting the lines moving, good time. El Segundo release of Hop Tanker was rather busy too, great DIPA, already have had two growlers of it. 

It's def going to be a good time, going to GABF as well.  : )

I havent ran across a Vlad for quite awhile, it is good though. Wanderer was awesome, wish they brewed it more than once. 

Was lucky to have a friend bring Vlad for birthday bottleshare this year.  Wanderer, had two bottles...sad to say finished the second one couple months ago.

I'm going to Colorado next week, can't wait to hit up New Belgium, O'dells, Oskar Blues, Funkwerks and hopefully Left Hand too!

This weekend I'll be going on the VIP tour of Sierra Nevada and then partying at their Oktoberfest on Saturday night. Can't wait!

Rad!

I had a few different sours at Russian River Brewery last week, and now I can say I'm a huge fan of sours.  Wow, I can't believe I hadn't had one before. I must venture out to try more.

 

Any recommendations from the sour lovers? Brandon?

Vlad the Imapler and the Wanderer are my two favorite sours!

I wish I was. I want to find a couple bottles of Merkin so bad.

They put them on sale yesterday at both of Firestone's tasting rooms, so if you really want a bottle you can always head up there, I'd suggest leaving early and spending the afternoon up there, though.  Traffic was okay leaving Anaheim around 9:30, but heading back from there at 3 was horrible traffic entire way back.

The event itself was really well done.  They had food pairings for 7 of the beers available, 13 beers in all.

They were:

Velvet Merkin Imperial Oatmeal Stout 2013

Luponic Distortion IPA--had food pairing

Dos Osos IPA:  Collaboration with Revolution

PNC Buckwheat Sout aged in Tequila Barrels--had food pairing

Madagascar Vanilla Bean Robust Porter

Bretta Weiss Berliner Weiss--had food pairing

Sour Opal

Lil Opal Saison--had food pairing

Barrel 66 4 yrs aged Imperial Special Bitter

2013 Agrestic Wild Red Ale--had food pairing

Agrestic Barrel #9 Barrel Select Wild Red Ale

Parabajava Imperial Java Stout--had food pairing

Forbidden Fruit:  Pomegranate Sour Stout

And I ended my day by going to my friend's wedding where they had a keg of '07 Old Guardian.

SO GOOD.

I was so disappointed with Anaheim Brewery. Guess its more "old school".

I need to revisit them, their style is definitely different, mostly traditional German style of brewing/beer.

They are within walking distance of my house, but haven't been in quite awhile, my boyfriend and I were just talking about how we need to go again.

What did you have?  Their 1888 is one of the ones I like best, they have new ones on tap since I last went.

Anyone going to Buellton tmw for release of the Merkins?

https://releaseofthemerkins.eventbrite.com/?ref=eweb

Sucks, as we have discussed, is the best value there is. Even better is that it "ages" well. I probably ran out two months ago and the last bottle was still delicious. 

 

If you haven't had Smog City yet here is when a trip to Torrance is much needed:

Porter and Laurie are unearthing from the deepest recesses of their cellar (aka walk-in) to pull as many mind-blowing beers as they can for full day of barrel-aged, rare and sour Smog City beers. All beers are in 5gal kegs so it’s a first come, first serve kind of event. All of the beers will only be pouring on Saturday Sept 28th 12-8pm.

Taplist

Cask

2009 O.E.

2011 Callaborative Evil w/Vanilla Beans

Draft

Quercus Circus – 19 month sour barrel-aged belgian blonde

Tempest – 18 month barrel-aged sour red rye

Farmhouse Funk

Bourbon Collaborative Evil – 2011 Collaboration with Julian Shrago of Beachwood BBQ

Bourbon Red – 15 months in bourbon barrels

Bourbon O.E.- Bourbon barrel-aged Olde English

Bourbon Imperial Porter

Weird Beer- 5 Grain Saison with spices

Hive Five- LABW special ingredient beer! 5 different types of Honey at 5.5%abv

GrapeApe IPA- IPA made with 500lbs of flame grapes, pressed on site

Groundwork Coffee Porter

Amarilla Gorilla IPA

Little Bo Pils

L.A. Saison

LOVE Smog City!!!

Not sure if this has been discussed yet here, but has anyone tried Old Orange Brewery? 

I haven't, have you?

Oktoberfest is back at the Anaheim Brewery.  Yum!

In other Anaheim beer news, for those who enjoy outdoor beer festivals, on September 21st, the 2nd annual Anaheim Fest of Ales will be held in downtown Anaheim.

Their website should give you most of the details:  ocfestofales.net

 

There will be a 5K run, with cool obstacle course, in the morning, followed by an all-day beer tasting.

So far, there are over 30 breweries committed to the event.

A basic admission ticket will get you 10 tastes, while a VIP ticket gets you unlimited tastes, plus food pairings to go along with your suds.

You can also enter your own homemade brews into a tasting competition, in case anyone on here homebrews, or knows someone interested in competing.

Volunteers to work the booths are still in demand.  By volunteering, you will get a shirt, free tastes, and if you work the afternoon shift, once the event is over you get to finish any remaining kegs.

PM me if you feel up to the task, and I will put you in contact with the event coordinators.

 

I'm helping with this event, it is going to be a lot of fun!  There was a promo code for discount yesterday, if there is another, I will share it with you guys.

: )

Maybe within 24 hours after opening. I've had issues with Alpine bottles, but never their growlers. Even if I opened it 3 weeks after purchase.

Every growler fill is different, all depends on how the employee seals it.  If it is sealed correctly and kept cold, they can last a good amount of time.

I've always wanted to try the White Choc from The Bruery. Last time I was there they had a bunch of bottles behind the bar. I asked if I could buy one and they said they weren't for sale. WTF?!?!

 

Bootleggers Pumpkin is already out? Last year it took til Nov. I like a lot of Pumpkin brews and I think it's pretty solid. Need to keep my eye out for the Seasonal Pumpkins brews now.

The Pumpkin was released last week, it's one of my favorite pumpkin beers because it has more of the spices rather than pumpkin flavor, but everyone has different tastes.

Picked up my Duck Duck Gooze today. Such an easy release, if only the online sale was. Gave a free sample and it was really good.

I'm glad somebody brought a bottle to Packinghouse on Saturday so I got to try some, really good!

Anyone going to OC Brew Ha Ha?  Had the collab beer made for the event by Bootlegger's/Cismontane/Tustin the other day, it's really good.

Are kids allowed in this place?

Yes, it is kid friendly.  You can also bring your dog too!